


Blinded to the Truth

by feudal



Category: Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2013-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-26 22:38:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/655139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feudal/pseuds/feudal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>N cannot afford to lose sight of his dream. Why do a girl and her haughty Serperior have to insist on trying to persuade him otherwise?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blinded to the Truth

_"I will separate Pokémon and people," he said, his fist clenched. There was no one in the world more resolute than he was about their goal, that is what he truly believed. "And black and white will be clearly distinct! Only then will Pokémon become perfect beings!" There was a mad edge to his voice now, one that drove her back. She took a few uneasy backward steps._  
  
"N…"  
  
"Yes, that is my dream! That is the dream I must fulfill!" He looked at her now, as if his previous words hadn't been meant for her at all. "White, do you have a dream of your own?"  
  
She closed her eyes now, as if in repose, and when she opened them, she looked not at him, but at a spot far away on the horizon. "I want to live side by side with my pokémon. I want to spend every day learning more about them and growing together with them."  
  
White had always seemed fragile to him. Flighty, even. Your typical teenaged girl on a pokémon journey. But on this point she was emphatic and sounded so sure of herself that it irritated N a little. "You have a dream… That's wonderful. I'll learn just what kind of dream you have--in battle!"

* * *

N sighed as the memories receded. His loss to her at Chargestone Cave had been just the latest in a streak that had started at Accumula Town.  _What is it about her_ , he wondered. She possessed such a kind heart that he'd thought surely she would understand his lofty dream, but White denied him each and every time. Just when he thought they were near to understanding each other, she drifted further. He could grasp the hearts of all his pokémon friends, but could never begin to understand hers.

  
"My lord N!"  
  
N looked up to see one of the Team Plasma grunts kneeling before him.  _It must be a matter of some importance_ , he thought, and resisted the urge to simply wave the man away. Leader of Team Plasma though he was, N disliked dealing with people. It was a given for someone who'd grown up among pokémon alone. "What is it?" he asked the man, voice calm and devoid of telltale emotions.  
  
"We have captured an important pokémon and Lord Ghetsis said that it's best you see it as soon as possible."  
  
"Oh?" N raised an eyebrow, but got out of his chair nonetheless. He wondered what kind of "important pokémon" they had captured and hoped that the grunts hadn't hurt the poor thing too much.  
  
"Yes, it's in one of the underground rooms, sir. It was struggling quite a bit so we had to restrain it, but--"  
  
Hearing this, N made a rush for the underground rooms at once. He knew all too well that certain members of the Team didn't fully understand their goals. He'd heard about the treatment of the Munna at the Dreamyard in Striaton City and had swiftly dealt with the offenders. "Restraint" was usually a euphemism for a much more sinister sort of treatment.  
  
He figured the pokémon was in the room that was guarded the most heavily and arrived in front of the door, huffing and out of breath from the sprint from upstairs. "Let me in," N ordered the guards, and they were all too happy to oblige.  
  
"Just be careful, my lord. It's a vicious--"  
  
N pushed past them and entered the room despite their warnings. At once he beheld an amazing sight: a Serperior, nearly 11 feet in height. Though its lower half was coiled, the Serperior's head still loomed a good four or five feet above his own and was a wonder to behold. It was chained to the wall, yet the Serperior held its head high and seemed to be peering down its nose at him. N knew at once that the guards had been lying--Serperiors were known to only bother with worthy opponents. It likely hadn't struggled at all during its capture except initially. "I hope that they did not treat you too roughly?" N said to it, resisting the urge to reach out and touch it. There was a familiar feeling to this Serperior, though N could not place exactly why he felt this way.  
  
The Seperior let out an irritated hiss. "I doubt even a Pidove would be intimidated by such base ruffians."  
  
So, too, were Serperiors known for their arrogance, so N paid its stinging words no heed. "Given your strength, you could break out of here easily, couldn't you?"  
  
"Oh yes," the Serperior curled its lower jaw into an eerie grin, or that's how it appeared. N wasn't sure if it was physiologically possible for snakes to grin. "But there is no need. I know that  _she_  will come for me, and I so dislike wasting my energy."  
  
"…'she'?"  
  
"White, of course." Its grin, if that was what it was, appeared even more obvious now.  
  
Suddenly angered, N called the guards into the room. "This is White's Serperior?" he demanded. Of course the pokémon had seemed familiar--N had fought against it many a time, though the last time he'd seen it, the Superior had been a Servine. White must have trained it more and gotten it to evolve after their battle in the Chargestone Cave.  
  
"Y-yes, sir!"  
  
"How is that possible?! How did you manage to obtain one of  _hers_?"  
  
"She was tired after a battle and careless, so we made off with it before she could react. We know that, even if she's just a young girl, she is quite strong, so none of us dared battle her this time." The Team Plasma grunt was nervous, but did not seem ashamed of his actions in the least.   
  
Of course they'd obtained this Serperior through less-than-honorable means. There was no way White would part with her beloved starter pokémon otherwise. Ghetsis had known this, of course--that was why he'd deemed the Serperior an "important pokémon".  
  
Well, it was no matter  _how_  they'd freed it. The ends justified the means, after all. N turned to the Serperior. "Well, isn't this great for you? You're free. You can live your life as  _you_  choose now--you can even join Team Plasma and bring equality with humans to all pokémon!" Of all the reactions he was expecting, the Serperior bursting into haughty laughter was not one of them. "W-what's so funny?!" N cried indignantly.  
  
"You are, boy." The Serperior craned its head down until it was looking N right in the eye. "You speak of freedom after putting me in chains. You speak of choice as if you ever really wanted to give me one. You speak of equality as if humans and pokémon shall ever be equal."  
  
N bit his lip. "Don't tell me you accept and embrace that inequality? Humans don't have to oppress pokémon any lon--"  
  
"Excuse me, boy, I believe you are mistaken. I meant that you humans shall never be  _our_ equal. You seem to believe that we pokémon are being oppressed."  
  
"You are!!" N burst out. "Humans imprison you in pokeballs and force you to battle each other for sport!"  
  
The Serperior's eyes narrowed. "You truly believe that?" N nodded slowly in reply. "Then you are even more of a fool than I initially believed."  
  
"W-what?!"  
  
"I am a twelve foot tall--"  
  
"Actually, you're closer to eleven fee--"  
  
"Don't interrupt me, boy." The Serperior hissed. "I am a twelve foot tall snake with enormous power. White also has on her team an electric eel, an incredibly fast zebra, a powerful psychic pokémon, and others. Of course, none of them are as strong as I am."  
  
This Serperior seemed to enjoy bragging about himself, N thought, and wondered when it would get to the point.  
  
"What can you humans do?"  
  
N was startled back into attention. "What?"  
  
"I said, what can you humans do? Can you call forth lightning, control fire, or start blizzards like we can?"  
  
"No…"  
  
"Yet you presume to think that humans oppress pokémon? Do you really think that we would stay with just any trainer? That we would  _continue_  to stay with White if we didn't deem her worthy? If we didn't love her?"  
  
"But White forces you to--!"  
  
"White doesn't 'force' us to do anything. She doesn't force pokémon to help steal other pokémon, doesn't scream at people to accept her point of view, and most certainly doesn't throw tantrums like a child."  
  
"You … think me a  _child_ …?"  
  
"Yes." The Serperior raised itself up high, looking down on N once again. "You are a sheltered, petulant child who will never understand the bond that a trainer shares with their pokémon. I feel sorry for your so-called 'friends'."  
  
N couldn't listen to any more. He left the room as quickly as he'd entered, and put the Serperior's words in the back of his mind--or at least, he tried to. When Ghetsis emerged from a Team Plasma meeting, he found his son crouching in a corner, desperately trying to forget the compelling words he'd heard. "You see now why we  _must_  free these pokémon?" Ghetsis crooned.  
  
"Huh?" N looked up, his mind in a state of utter confusion.  
  
"See how this … White … has brainwashed her pokémon into thinking that they can leave at any time! As if they could escape those high technology pokeballs!"  
  
N felt the fog begin to clear. "So… That Serperior only  _thinks_  that he's not being oppressed…"  
  
"That's right. You know better than anyone what those poor pokémon are forced to do."  
  
N bit his lip, remembering the painful battles against White, remembered watching his pokémon friends get hurt in that process. "Still… I will return her Serperior to her."  
  
This startled Ghetsis momentarily, but the older man returned to his indifferent mask soon enough. "Why would you consider such a thing?"  
  
Of course N couldn't say that when he imagined White's sad face, it made his heart ache, even if she was his enemy--Team Plasma's enemy. "The Serperior said that she was sure to rescue him. Seeing how she has interfered with our plans in the past, I'm sure that was not a bluff. It'd be best if they did not locate this place."  
  
"But--"  
  
"That's the decision I've made and I will hear no arguments. I will do it myself…Father." He rose once more and left.

* * *

It did not take long for him to find White in Mistralton City, her having just defeated the gym leader there. "I saw that my subordinates had taken this Serperior from you, and as I believe their actions were dishonorable, I am returning it to you."

  
The look of pure joy and relief on her face was palpable, he thought. The Serperior lovingly coiled itself around her in an embrace, and there were tears in her eyes. "Thank you, N…"  
  
"Why didn't you rescue it sooner?"  
  
"We were trying to learn more about your headquarters first, and anyway the Mistralton City gym leader had flying type pokémon and they're strong against grass types like Serperior." When the snake hissed at her in protest, White smiled. "I know you don't like to hear about things like that, but it's true. It's best that you weren't hurt during such a battle, and it's even better that you have been returned unharmed."  
  
N felt his heart lurch, but ignored it. Her words were just lies, after all. What did trainers like her care whether their pokémon were hurt or not? That's what he tried to tell himself, but the truth was, he and Team Plasma had just come too far to stop now. If he allowed himself to be swayed from the Truth that he believed in, it would mean the end of everything. No matter how compelling the other argument, no matter how much he truly liked White, he had to ignore it--they were just lies meant to distract him from his dream.  
  
"My vision is to change the world without using force. Trying to change the world by force will just make others resist. If people resist, the ones that will be hurt are the innocent Pokémon used by foolish Trainers. You understand. Pokémon are not just tools for people to use!"  
  
"N…"  
  
"As a result… Pokémon and Trainers who care about one another, like you and your Pokémon, will be separated." He turned away from her now, ready to walk away and start the rest of his plans. N had so many plans left… pokémon  _would_  be liberated, one way or another. The next time they met, it would be after he summoned the legendary dragon--it would be as mortal enemies.  
  
Still, he conceded, "And that does break my heart a little."


End file.
